France’s first lady Brigitte Macron is set to press charges after a conspiracy theory claiming she was born male gained traction on social media.
The rumour, which can be traced back to a small extreme-Right journal article from September, falsely claims that the 68-year-old wife of Emmanuel Macron is a transgender woman who was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux.
Ms Macron’s lawyer, Jean Ennochi, said there will be “legal action” against the instigators of the claims for libel.
“She has decided to initiate proceedings, it is in progress," said Mr Ennochi.
The rapid spread of the outlandish theory has led to fears that France’s presidential election, which is forecast to pit Mr Macron against one of two controversial hard-Right populists, could be swayed by the type of fake news that accompanied the rise of Donald Trump in the US in 2016.
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The rumour can be traced back to the journal Faits et Documents, which published a “three-year investigation” into Ms Macron, including claims she was born as a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux. Trogneux is Ms Macron’s real maiden name.
The story initially went unnoticed as the magazine only publishes articles in print and has a small circulation.
But on December 10, Natacha Rey, the journalist who penned the story, gave a four-hour interview about the theory which was posted on Youtube and racked up nearly 500,000 views before being removed.
Several fringe websites and social media accounts spread the fake news,...
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